State Education Commissioner John King on Saturday canceled appearances at four upcoming PTA-sponsored community meetings, following a barrage of criticism from raucous parents and teachers Thursday in Poughkeepsie.

The state tour was intended to promote the newly implemented Common Core standards, and had included a stop at Williamsville North High School on Oct. 24.

King, in a statement, blamed ‚Äúspecial interests‚ÄĚ for disrupting the first scheduled meeting, which he said led him to cancel the other town hall-style meetings....

Mike, wasn't that (in)famous atheist, H.L. Mencken a New Yorker? He did have some useful thoughts,"...school teachers, taking them by and large, are probably the most ignorant and stupid class of men in the whole group of menial workers." I at least in the past could say this wasn't true of large number of Nebraska teachers, though I could also add it was also true of a large number of them, Ah, well, "Firmness in decision is often merely a form of stupidity. It indicates an inability to think the same thing out twice." Enough of H.L. for the present in fact I disagree with quite a bit of what he said, though of course, "For every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong."

From the news:"I was looking forward to engaging in a dialogue with parents across the state. I was eagerly anticipating answering questions from parents about the Common Core and other reforms we‚Äôre moving ahead with in New York State. Unfortunately, the forums sponsored by the New York State PTA have been co-opted by special interests whose stated goal is to ‚Äėdominate‚Äô the questions and manipulate the forum,‚ÄĚ King wrote."

Translation: Only the special interests of New York State politician/"educators" should be allowed to dominate the questions and manipulate the forum. How else to convince of the necessity of teaching to the test, and manufacturing equal outcomes?